The present invention relates to an anchor pile apparatus and, more particularly, to an anchor piling apparatus which includes a helical anchor and one or more hollow pile sections adapted for driving into the soil with a surface mounted power source.
The construction and building industries have long used anchor pile devices for providing structural support to buildings in adverse soil conditions. From the beginning, cylindrical disks were used as part of the anchor devices for penetrating the soil and making it ready for the installation of structural pilings. The cylindrical pile devices usually comprise a motor, such as a hydraulic motor, for imparting torque on the anchors to advance the anchors into the competent soil. The cylindrical disks provide the necessary tension and compression of the soil. The original purpose of an earth anchor was to lead the way for the piles, which in the beginning were used for lighter load structures with small diameter shafts and were installed by hand.
With the advent of the hydraulic drive motors, the helical anchors increased in size with much higher tension loads and deeper installation, thus allowing the anchors to reach better soils and achieve much higher tension capacities. About the same time it was discovered that the cylindrical disks on a shaft must also carry compression load in addition to the tension load of the original designs. The development of the helical powered technology led to the use of increasing sizes for the helical disk as well as increasing the shaft size required by the increased demands of poor soil installations. The goal was to achieve higher compression load capacities. With bigger anchor piles, the industry needed bigger installation equipment to combat friction that develops around the larger diameter installation shaft to support the load between the helical disk and the structural applied load.
There also exist conditions where the large anchor pile installation is not feasible. In such cases smaller construction equipment must be used to provide the force necessary to drive the anchor piles into the soil. In such cases, the conventional piling systems are not versatile enough to ensure the sufficient tension and compression force required of the piling system.
The present invention contemplates elimination of drawbacks associated with the prior art and provision of a anchor piling apparatus that uses smaller, more versatile equipment while providing the necessary structural components for a pile-supported structure.